The definition of new literacy is still seems very fluid to me. In his book, Troy Hicks describes the theories of new literacies (as well as the concept of multiliteracies and digital literacies) that was developed by Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear, where there are “two broad mindsets”. Basically, one mindset says the world hasn’t changed much there is just a bit of technology added in and then there is the mindset that says that the world has changed completely, where cyberspace is the new world and it operates on different “values” than the real physical world. Digital literacies and mutliliteracies describe respectively the ability to evaluate and generate digital content and using literacies that move beyond the basic print text. I would like to think that new literacy is a type of combination of components of the three types of literacies. I would define new literacies as the new forms of literacy created through (but not limited to) the use of digital technology. It is the creating, processing, and sharing of information (opinions, facts, literature, etc.) through means other than the standard text form. It could be online (social networks, blogs, emails, chats), it can be simply digital (creating videos, digital storyboards) or it can be something simple as using innovative art forms for expression or to share information. The development of new literacies has allowed for constant and immediate access to information to people around the world. “More than one billion people use the internet globally, and more than half of them live outside of the United States and Europe,” (New Learning Ecology).People are also provided with the means to “create, mash up, comment on, and edit content and allows them to communicate with people globally” (New Learning Ecology). Because people have this constant access to the means of generating and sharing information, they are also constantly challenged to “evolve” meaning they find new ways to use existing tools or create new tools all together. The information shared (all the opinions, all the blogs, etc.) is also evolving both in content and how the content is being displayed (adding multimedia to increase the effect).
New Learning and Ecology and Using the TPACK Framework both discuss teacher’s acquiring skills and understanding of various new literacy “tools” in the world. They also discuss the importance of understanding the limits of the tools and how using the tools will impact student learning which obviously makes sense. Not every tool can be used for all purposes which is where repurposing technology comes into play (using twitter for classroom discussion for example). After skimming the activity types for the secondary English language arts section (the wiki), I think that the activity that most appealed to me was the video conferencing with authors. I think that would be an awesome thing to do for my students (and for me honestly) because I’m sure students would have an amazing amount of questions for the author depending on the novel that was being read.
The development of new literacies has allowed for constant and immediate access to information to people around the world. “More than one billion people use the internet globally, and more than half of them live outside of the United States and Europe,” (New Learning Ecology).People are also provided with the means to “create, mash up, comment on, and edit content and allows them to communicate with people globally” (New Learning Ecology). Because people have this constant access to the means of generating and sharing information, they are also constantly challenged to “evolve” meaning they find new ways to use existing tools or create new tools all together. The information shared (all the opinions, all the blogs, etc.) is also evolving both in content and how the content is being displayed (adding multimedia to increase the effect).
New Learning and Ecology and Using the TPACK Framework both discuss teacher’s acquiring skills and understanding of various new literacy “tools” in the world. They also discuss the importance of understanding the limits of the tools and how using the tools will impact student learning which obviously makes sense. Not every tool can be used for all purposes which is where repurposing technology comes into play (using twitter for classroom discussion for example). After skimming the activity types for the secondary English language arts section (the wiki), I think that the activity that most appealed to me was the video conferencing with authors. I think that would be an awesome thing to do for my students (and for me honestly) because I’m sure students would have an amazing amount of questions for the author depending on the novel that was being read.